


Shaded by the Ginkgo Tree

by Miss_Bell



Series: Ikisudama [2]
Category: Danny Phantom
Genre: Alternate Universe, Completion not guaranteed, Danny needs a mentor, Finding Family, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-19
Updated: 2021-01-07
Packaged: 2021-03-10 18:41:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,797
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28161840
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Miss_Bell/pseuds/Miss_Bell
Summary: In one universe, Danny had to learn 'how-to-ghost' on his own.This isn't that universe.  This is a universe where he found a teacher.
Series: Ikisudama [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2057229
Comments: 3
Kudos: 36





	1. Early Days

Shrine smiled as he opened the door for Danny. “I see fortune has been kind to you lately.”

Danny nodded. “I found out what I want to do with my powers.”

“Have you now?” asked Shrine. “What is it?”

“I’m going to be a _superhero!_ ” Danny crowed.

Shrine canted his head. “That’s not a bad goal,” he said. “Something to work towards. I like it.”

“No, I meant _now_ ,” replied Danny. “I fought a ghost over the last two days, and I think I can do some good!”

Shrine frowned. “You’re rather young for that, child. I would prefer you to wait until your maturity.” He shook himself, sending his hair billowing down his back, and went on. “I am not so foolish as to force you to wait. _However_ ,” he stated sternly, “I _do_ ask that you take _proper_ care of yourself. You will not do anyone any good if you work yourself sick!”

“Yes, Shrine,” replied Danny. “You’re still going to teach me, right?” he asked a little uncertainly.

“Of course, child,” answered Shrine. “Were you hurt?” he asked, concern colouring his tones.

“Huh?”

“In the fight,” Shrine clarified. “Did you get hurt?”

Danny shook his head. “No, not really.”

“Well then!” Shrine said cheerfully. “Is there a story? I have a pot of tea ready.”

Danny nodded. “It all started with Sam changing the lunch menu at school,” he began.

* * *

“Danny, your powers make you unique,” said Sam.

“You mean,” interrupted Danny, “the powers I share with almost every ghost ever?” Couldn’t he mope a little about not being fully human anymore _without_ Sam trying to pep talk him?

Sam paused to rally her thoughts. “Well, you’re not a full ghost. You’re an ikir-whatsit –”

“Ikiryou,” supplied Danny. That was Shrine’s idea – having a name for his kind. Ikiryou were from Japanese folklore, and while the stories didn’t really match up with him the concept worked fairly well.

Besides, the word meant _living ghost_. How cool was that!

“– ikiryou, and that makes you unique,” continued Sam. “Unique is good! That’s why I’m an ultra recyclo-vegetarian!”

* * *

“She’s a what?” asked Shrine.

“Tucker thought the same thing,” responded Danny. “I thought it meant she didn’t eat anything with a face, but apparently it also means eating mud.”

“Mud,” stated Shrine in tones of mixed disbelief and worry. “Real mud?” He got up and went over to the cupboards.

“Yeah, that’s what got Dash upset,” answered Danny.

“And she normally eats it? Do her parents know?” asked Shrine as he grabbed his tin of youkan. Danny still wasn’t sure it really counted as a candy, but it tasted good.

“Well, I guess so,” Danny said. “They’d have to, wouldn’t they? What’s wrong with it?”

“It isn’t _safe_ , child,” replied Shrine, setting a few more pieces of youkan in front of Danny. “All medicines are poisonous when taken wrongly, and earth is no exception. She could make herself very ill, or even injure herself,” he said sitting back down.

“Oh,” Danny said in a small voice.

Shrine reached over and gently covered Danny’s hand with his own. “Let us save this worry for a later time. For now, we should enjoy the story.”

Danny took a deep breath, and then resumed the story. “So Dash got really mad at me, and I had to call a garbage fight so we could sneak into the kitchen because I sensed a ghost in there.”

* * *

The ghost didn’t look dangerous. Danny knew better then to expect a howling creature seeking to pull the living into the afterlife, but even _Shrine_ looked like he could be scary.

She turned around and floated over. “Hello children, can you help me?”

“Maybe,” Danny replied. “What do you need help with?”

“I can’t find the meatloaf,” the ghost answered. “Today’s lunch is supposed to be meatloaf, unless someone changed the menu.”

“Someone did change the menu!” Tucker exclaimed. He pointed at Sam. “She did!”

“YOU CHANGED THE MENU?” the ghost roared, going from ‘harmless old lady’ to ‘old lady from hell’ as she did so. “THE MENU HAS BEEN THE SAME FOR FIFTY YEARS!”

“Get behind me!” yelled Danny. “I’m going ghost!”

He _shifted_. It almost felt natural now.

He flew up to where the ghost was, and then realized he had no idea what he was supposed to do.

* * *

“So I said, ‘I command you to go away!’”

Shrine’s laughter sounded through the room like a wooden xylophone. “Did it work?”

“Well, no,” Danny answered.

“You’re young yet,” Shrine said smiling. “You’ll grow into it. I’ve had the raising of a bugbear, and his first attempts at scaring people didn’t work so well either.” He sat up straighter. “So then what?”

“Well, first she threw a lot of dishes at me, so I just went intangible and let them phase through me,” said Danny, “but then she threw them at Sam and Tucker so I had to catch them.” He smiled. “I didn’t break any!”

Shrine nodded encouragingly.

“Then she said something about lunch being sacred and having rules, animated the stoves, and left the kitchen,” Danny continued. “I had to grab Sam and Tucker and phase them out of there.” He nibbled a piece of youkan. “We escaped into the hallway, but the ghost followed us and she summoned a lot of meat from somewhere – Tucker thinks it was the teacher’s lounge – and used it to turn herself into a meat monster. I would have fought her, but I shifted back by mistake. She grabbed Sam, and Lancer caught us before we could go after her.”

“Why was he – Oh, right,” Shrine said. “The ‘garbage fight’. Carry on.”

* * *

Tucker sniffed the air. “That steak is still in the building. Two hundred yards, tops.”

Danny scanned the security screens. “Check it out,” he said pointing to a view of the meat locker. “Meat trail.”

He shifted, grabbed Tucker, and phased to the meat locker.

“How is it that _I’m_ an ikiryou and _you’re_ the weird kid?” Danny asked as Tucker rhapsodized over the meat locker.

Any retort Tucker might have had was broken by the sound of ghostly cackling. They looked around a row of boxes to find the ghost trying to convince Sam to eat meat.

“I’ll take care of the ghost,” Danny said. “You find a way to get Sam out of that pile of meat!”

“ _Way_ ahead of you,” Tucker said, pulling out a knife and fork.

Danny flew round the corner, and clobbered the ghost down the aisle and into the wall. He tried to follow it up with a flying kick, but she caught his ankle before it could land.

“DON’T YOU SEE?” she asked. “THIS IS WHY YOU NEED MEAT! YOU’RE SKIN AND BONES!” Then she threw him half-way through a wall, and hurled shish-kabobs at him.

He had never before been so glad he could phase.

The ghost summoned the meat to herself, turning into an even bigger monster, grabbed Danny while he stood there gawking and threw him through another wall. Upon phasing back through, he saw her chasing Sam and Tucker.

He quickly flew over, grabbed them, and phased them outside through yet another wall.

* * *

“And then I fell asleep while flying,” Danny said. “Sam said I kind of floated down? No one was hurt, anyway.”

“It sounds like you used too much of your energy and went dormant,” Shrine commented. “It’s normal, and usually doesn’t last very long.”

Danny shrugged. “Well, after that they carried me home. I woke up a couple hours later, and then they argued over whose fault it was. Tucker said he was going to get the menu changed back and Sam said she wouldn’t let him, so they ran off. I was thinking of talking to you about the ghost, but I had homework and you don’t have a phone. So, you know, I didn’t.”

Shrine nodded. “Entirely understandable, even though I would have preferred it if I had known.”

“Anyways,” said Danny, “the next day they had whipped up two protests in front of the school. I think Tucker was protesting the menu and Sam was protesting his protest? There was a lot of meat at Tucker’s protest, so when the ghost lady showed up she turned herself into a meat monster the size of a _house_. I actually landed a hit on her, and I think she felt it, and then she punched me into the stratosphere. On my way back down I decided to see if I could dive into her and get her that way, and it kind of worked. Left a pretty big crater, though.” He drank the last of his tea. “She asked me if I was okay, which was weird, and after I said yes she attacked me with these tiny meat monsters.”

“She was most likely Mrs. Brown,” replied Shrine. “Mrs. Brown was – and usually still is – a very kind and motherly woman. She lost her two-year old daughter to malnutrition during the Great Depression, and devoted much of her life to preventing such tragedies. The lunch menu at Casper High was her crowning achievement, and there is no ghost who is rational when the things they love drastically change.” He gazed contemplatively into his empty teacup. “Ghosts who have truly died are more strongly affected. The dissonance between her normal state and her rage at the changed menu is the most likely cause of her personality swaps.” He set down the teacup. “As you were saying.”

“Right,” Danny responded. “I got the first five, but she made more of them and I shifted to human by mistake. I got grabbed by them and they flew me over the building, and then I got whacked in the face by the Fenton Thermos.”

“Fenton thermos?”

“My dad built it to catch ghosts.”

“I see.”

“Anyhow, they dropped me when I changed back,” continued Danny. “I phased through the ground and resurfaced by the ghost – Mrs. Brown? Whatever. She got upset because soup wasn’t on her menu, and I said –” Danny stood up and pulled his most intimidating pose. “– ‘I’m changing the menu. Permanently!’” He dropped the pose. “Then I used the thermos on her. Do you think it hurt her?”

“Not likely,” Shrine answered. “Being a thermos, its innate purpose is that of containment. As impressive as Mr. Fenton is, he would need to actually understand his abilities to make something act outside of its nature.”

“Good to know,” Danny said. “That’s where the story ends, I guess.”

Shrine smiled and began clearing the table. “Well, it sounds like you handled things as well as you could be expected to. I suppose we should find out what offensive powers you can learn – you should at least have an energy burst.”

“Really? Can we start today?”

“We need to see to your basics first, Danny,” Shrine said, setting the last of the dishes by the sink. “But we will afterwards.”

And with that, they began.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ikiryou are a real part of Japanese folklore. The idea is that under particular circumstances - such as obsessive, one-sided love - the soul of a living person can separate from their body and take action.
> 
> Youkan is also a real thing, it's basically a kind of Japanese sweet made with bean paste, water, sugar, and agar to make it set. It keeps for a long time without needing to be refrigerated.
> 
> I've never had it myself, but I'd like to try it one day.


	2. Forming Bonds

Danny passed under the archway of the shrine, and turned off the pathway. On a day like this, Shrine wouldn’t be in either of the shrine buildings; he’d be under the ginkgo tree.

The ginkgo tree was a beautiful thing, particularly in autumn. It stood behind the main building, dominating its part of the property and scattering yellow leaves with abandon. Shrine said it had been planted over a hundred and twenty years ago when the shrine was built.

Shrine looked up as Danny stepped onto the carpet of fallen leaves and smiled. “It’s good to see you, Danny. How have you been?”

“I’m fine,” Danny answered. “Aside from embarrassing myself in front of Paulina, that is.”

Shrine hummed agreeably as he nodded. “Was there anything in particular you wanted to do?”

“Well, I _was_ hoping we’d work on that energy beam,” Danny said cheerfully. “What’s with the low-power exercises anyway? It’s not like it’s any easier to control.”

“I want you to learn how to _under-power_ attacks and suchlike,” Shrine explained, “so that if you grow into an affinity you can _start_ with under-powered effects and gain control of it that way.” He stood up, and headed with Danny towards the main building. “The other way is to drain the attuned energy by expending all of it faster then it can replenish, and I don’t think Amity Park has the space for that.”

“Okay, low power then,” Danny said with a nervous chuckle. “Low power sounds good.” He stopped short. “Oh! Wait! Sam wanted you to annotate another book!”

“Really?” asked Shrine in a bemused sort of way.

Danny nodded as he opened his backpack. “She said it was given to her by a cousin, and she wants to know how reliable it is – Aha! Found it!” He pulled the book out of his bag. As he did so, a gold amulet with a green stone fell out.

“What is that?” Shrine asked Danny.

“The book? _Ghosts and Their Elements: the Folklore of Elementals_ by Dr. Stantz. She thought it might help with –”

“No, the necklace,” Shrine interrupted, pointing at the necklace in question. “Where is it from?”

Danny looked down at it. “I don’t know, I haven’t seen it before.”

“ _I_ might have,” Shrine muttered. He reached down, gave it two swift taps, and then gingerly picked it up. “I’m going to put this somewhere it can’t cause any harm, and then we can attend to your lessons.”

Danny nodded, and hurried inside. It didn’t take long before Shrine was done tucking the necklace away and they could begin. Danny took a deep breath, steadied himself, and aimed. Using so little power was more difficult then it sounded – at such levels the energies resisted forming a beam, seeking to cling and envelope. Forcing the beam off took some effort –

Halfway to the target, the beam slipped from his control and snapped back to his hand. “Aww, I thought I had it!”

“It does take time, child,” Shrine replied, “and your beams do tend to use more energy then the norm.” He shrugged. “It is not a bad thing, and you are doing reasonably well.”

Danny huffed, smiled, and readied another one.

* * *

A night and a day later, Shrine glowered at the amulet and hissed distrustfully. He had taken it out to run some tests on it, which so far had told him very little. It had magic. It was not sapient, housing a ghost, or malicious in purpose. It responded to anger and frustration, which was not a promising sign. It did not care about the time of day _,_ night, _or_ moon phase. The only test he had left was putting it on and seeing what happened – never a good idea.

He was also giving off St. Elmo’s fire, which he figured meant it was time to put the thing away. Clearly, he wasn’t going to get anywhere with it. Come false dawn he’d be able to nip over to a friend of his and be rid of the thing.

No sooner had he put the amulet away he heard Danny calling for him. Naturally, he went to Danny at once. “It’s late, child. Is something wrong?”

Danny slowly nodded. “It’s... kind of a long story.”

“I have time,” Shrine said kindly.

Danny examined his hands for a bit. “I guess it started right after Paulina asked me to the school dance. My pants fell down – I think they were loose – right in front of Mr. Lancer. You know how I’ve been having trouble with my clothes phasing?”

Shrine nodded.

“Well, Mr. Lancer said he wanted a parent-teacher conference with my dad. Only, my dad was upset because he hadn’t caught any ghosts, and, um,” Danny paused nervously, “I, ah, mighthavepossessedhimsoIdidn’tneedtotellhim.”

“You ‘might have’ possessed him?”

“Actually possessed him,” Danny corrected. “And during the talk with Lancer I made him agree to chaperone the dance tomorrow, but he doesn’t know about it because he doesn’t remember andIdon’tknowwhattodo!”

“Calm down, child,” Shrine responded. “You possessed your father, and while doing so you attended a conference with your teacher Mr. Lancer?”

“Yes.”

“And during the conference you agreed to a request that your father chaperone a school dance?”

Danny nodded.

“Which your father doesn’t remember.”

“Yes,” replied Danny.

Shrine sighed, and smiled gently. “The best thing to do is to leave the situation alone. Make sure your father knows he is expected to chaperone the dance and that the conference occurred, and then ignore it.”

“But he doesn’t remember what happened! What if he talks with Lancer?”

Shrine tried to keep his amusement out of his voice. “Unless your father is far more distrustful then I remember, he will assume that Lancer’s version of events is correct. He may be confused and puzzled, but most people under such circumstances assume they misremembered.” He paused. “Of course, he could have an argument with Mr. Lancer. This is also not something you should concern yourself with, particularly since you still haven't told your parents about being an ikiryou.”

“What does that have to do with it?” Danny asked.

“Even if your father does suspect something, he has no reason to connect it with you,” answered Shrine. “Was that the first time you possessed someone?” he asked cheerfully.

“Not quite,” said Danny. “I possessed Dash first by accident. It was a little weird, but kind of fun!”

Shrine nodded. “I’ve enjoyed it myself. However, it would best if you did not possess people without their permission. It isn’t neighbourly, and people tend to get upset over it.”

“Yes, Shrine,” Danny replied. “I should be going home now. Bye!”

Shrine watched as Danny flew out of sight, and then went to grab _Ghost and their Elements_ and a pencil. As he did so, a thought struck him. Why had the failure of Mr. Fenton’s ghost hunt caused Danny to not want to tell him about the conference with Mr. Lancer?

... He was going to ask Danny about that the next time he saw him.

* * *

Danny flew up to the shrine entrance. “Shrine?” he called.

“In here child,” Shrine replied from what had once been the priest’s quarters. He sounded a little... muffled?

Danny opened the door, and nearly fell over laughing. Shrine’s hair was clinging to him all over, in stubborn defiance of his attempts to tame it, in such a way as to suggest an overly-affectionate pompom had enveloped him.

“I was resting when you came in,” Shrine explained, “I’ve had a long day, what returning that necklace and those Renaissance-Dark Agers. ” He pulled his hair clear of his face with a crackle of static, and began getting his legs free.

“You sleep while floating?”

“That’s how I do everything else,” Shrine answered, “though I’m not sure ‘sleep’ is the most accurate word. What did your father’s failed hunt have to do with you not wanting to tell him about the conference with Mr. Lancer?”

“What?” asked Danny.

“Last night, when you told me about possessing your father,” Shrine said, “You mentioned that your father had failed to catch any ghosts in conjunction with not wanting to tell him about the conference with Mr. Lancer. How are they related?”

“Oh! He wasn’t hunting ghosts, he was fishing for them,” Danny responded. “It really upset him, and he said he wanted ‘to take it out on the next person who gives me bad news’. He wouldn’t have _done_ much, he would’ve just been all grouchy at me, but I didn’t want to deal with that.”

“Ah,” said Shrine. “So, child, what brings you here tonight? I thought there was a dance?”

“Paulina only asked me to get back at Sam,” replied Danny. “And when I told her Sam wasn’t my girlfriend she dumped me in front of _everyone_. I didn’t want to stay any longer, and my house felt too empty. Can I stay here until it’s over?”

“Of course, child.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The timeline for Parental Bonding is really unclear - the internal evidence contradicts itself more then once - so I picked three days as the shortest time I considered plausible.
> 
> Shrine _has_ seen the amulet before, but it's appearance is generic enough that he's seen more then one amulet like it. He finds Prince Aragon insufferable because Shrine is old enough that he's been in Europe during the High Medieval Period, and thus knows how much Prince Aragon gets wrong.


	3. First Glimpses

“I’m no teacher,” Tucker said, spinning the Fenton Thermos, “But I’m –”

A pale white hand snatched the thermos and tucked it inside a flowing alabaster sleeve. “Don’t you have _homes_ , children?” Shrine asked.

“Shrine!” exclaimed Danny. “What a surprise!”

“ _That’s_ Shrine?” asked Tucker. “I thought he looked old!”

“I thought his hair was shorter,” commented Sam.

Shrine ignored their commentary. “Do your _parents_ know you’re out here?”

The three of them looked at each other. “My parents think I’m at Sam’s house,” said Tucker.

“Mine think I’m at Tucker’s,” stated Sam.

“I didn’t tell them I was going out,” Danny admitted.

Shrine sighed. “I see. I suppose you’re heading home.”

“Maybe?” Danny asked hopefully.

“That was not a request, child,” Shrine stated. _“I know where the nearest payphone is.”_

“We’re going, we’re going!” Sam said quickly. “Come on you two let’s _go!_ _”_ She grabbed Danny and Tucker and turned to go.

“Do you mind if I escort you?” Shrine asked mildly. “I would like to be certain you got home safely.”

“Sure,” answered Sam. “Since you’re coming with, do you mind telling me what the difference between affinities and attunments is? You wrote that Dr. Stantz had confused the two, but not why it mattered.”

Shrine smiled. “An affinity is something a person _has_ , while an attunement is something a person _is_. They do have other distinguishing features, such as the degree of limitations they place...”

* * *

When Shrine and Danny reached the Fenton home, Danny paused on the sidewalk. “Shrine? Can I have the thermos back?”

“Of course, child,” Shrine said as he handed the thermos over.

“Why were you by the docks, anyway?” asked Danny.

“I was returning home from buying crafting supplies,” Shrine replied. “Why do you ask?”

Danny shrugged. “No reason.” He flew to the side of the house and phased into his room.

* * *

“Shrine! Shrine!” Danny called upon arriving at the shrine with Tucker.

Shrine rushed over. “What’s wrong?”

Danny and Tucker both began speaking at once.

“Children, _children!_ Slow _down,_ ” Shrine said. “I can’t understand you like this!”

They both stopped speaking.

“Right,” Shrine stated. “One at a time please, and we’re going inside where the tea is.” He turned to go indoors, and the two of them followed.

Danny began speaking as they walked past the shrine’s fount, covered long ago. “It started with this ghost in my room –”

“No, Sam said he’d been at the zoo,” Tucker interjected. “When the gorilla got out. Remember?”

“Yes, right,” Danny said. “It started when this ghost turned up at the zoo...”

* * *

“...And that’s when we went to tell you about it,” Danny concluded.

“I see,” Shrine said faintly, clutching his teapot. “So. You’ve been _repeatedly attacked_ by Skulker who wants to keep you as some sort of _trophy_ and installed a schedule into his armour. You haven’t been hurt?”

Danny shook his head.

“I suppose you haven’t told your parents.”

“Why would he tell his parents?” wondered Tucker.

Shrine gave him a look. “Their son _was_ attacked under their roof. I should think they have a legitimate interest in the event.” He shook himself. “Be _that_ as it may, we have other things to concern ourselves with. Tucker?”

“Yes?”

“What is the earliest time I can expect Skulker to be away from bystanders?”

“We were thinking of ambushing him by the gorilla enclosure,” replied Tucker.

Shrine nodded. “Can I trust you to stay behind and not interfere?”

“Why would we stay behind?” asked Tucker.

“I can fight!” Danny exclaimed.

Shrine hissed like an upset cat. “You are _children_ still,” he stated. “ I want you to _stay_ where you won’t get _hurt.”_

“But I can help!” said Danny. “I’ve fought ghosts before, and this time he’ll be out in the open where I can blast him!”

“Broad as a barn is he?” Shrine asked. He gave his head a shake. “Be that as it may, _I don’t want you involved._ Can I trust you to stay away?”

Danny and Tucker looked uncertainly at one another.

Shrine sighed, pressing his fingertips to his forehead. “I see. Very well. Danny?”

“Yes Shrine?”

“I’m setting you to gorilla wrangling. Keep him away from the metal bars and the fighting, I’m going to be loosing lightning bolts and I don’t want to kill him by mistake. Tucker, you know how to use a Fenton Thermos?”

“Yes, I do,” Tucker answered.

Shrine nodded sharply. “I want you to wait somewhere out of the way with the thermos, so that you can use it on Skulker when I tell you to. Do you two understand?”

Danny and Tucker nodded. “What about Sam?” Danny asked. “She wants to help as well.”

“Sam isn’t here,” Shrine said in puzzled tones.

“Well, she _would_ be here if she didn’t have that after-school activist thing going on,” Tucker said.

Shrine failed to fully stifle a whine. “Give her a whistle and set her as a lookout or _something.”_

* * *

Shrine stood by the enclosure, waiting. A whistle sounded, not far enough away. The hour of nine was a mere ten minutes away.

Skulker would soon be here.

The whine of a pair of jet-engines cut through the sky, coming closer. Shrine almost smiled.

Skulker landed heavily inside the enclosure, with aristocratic carelessness. Shrine entered it and announced his presence with the hissing discharge of St. Elmo’s Fire and the soft rustling susurrus of his hair.

“Leave Amity Park at once,” Shrine demanded.

Skulker looked at him in confusion. “Aren’t you from Bengal?”

Wrong answer. Shrine loosed a stroke of lightning. It connected with Skulker, and by the sound of things it hurt dreadfully.

“That was my weapon control system!” Skulker bellowed. “You’ll –”

Shrine dove forward. Skulker dodged out of the way as Shrine twisted and raked his side with electrified fingertips. The sustained discharge heated the metal, allowing the sharp points to score it deeply.

The return blow swung high. Shrine opened the distance between them, hair scraping the air to regain charge. “Leave. _Now.”_

“I just want the human-ghost child,” Skulker declared. “I’ll leave once I have him.”

Shrine growled thunderously, and spun a small amount of charge into a ball. He threw it at Skulker, who dodged it, and launched a second one which hit and detonated.

Skulker clanged against the bars, thumped on the ground, and fired an arrow at Shrine. Shrine phased, allowing it to pass through harmlessly.

Skulker snorted, and tucked the bow away.

The fight went on for some time, with Shrine relying primarily on his ranged attacks and Skulker seeking to get close where his physical might was of use.

Shrine shrieked at a sudden jolt of pain, and pulled himself free. They were both the worse for wear, him and Skulker – while he lacked Skulker’s blackened and scored marks, Skulker had pulled off lengths of his hair and pummelled him soundly. Shrine needed to end this soon.

He didn’t have _quite_ enough charge for another lightning bolt, _yet_ , but just a little more...

_T_ _here._ Check the conductive pathway and –

“Samson, no! Come back!” _Danny._

– Drop the charge separation and lose half of it so as to not electrocute a wayward gorilla. _Trousers._

On the other hand, Skulker was experiencing the full might of an irate gorilla. Samson tore through the suit like a kid through tinfoil, gutting it and pulling it apart.

The screeching sounds of metallic carnage summoned Danny, Sam, and Tucker to the scene, where they joined Shrine in watching the show.

“But why would a ghost need a high-tech battle suit?” Tucker pondered.

His question was soon answered. Samson hurled the head of the battle suit away, and Danny caught it. A pair of tiny legs flailed from an opening, and Danny grabbed them.

“Now I remember you!” Shrine exclaimed in realization. “You were the froggy in the steam-powered suit!”

“I am NOT a FROGGY!” Skulker yelled as loudly as he could. “I have never BEEN a FROG! I was a HUMAN! _HUMANS ARE NOT FROGS!”_

While Danny and Tucker transferred Skulker to the thermos and Samson ambled over to watch, Sam turned to Shrine. “You’ve met him before?”

Shrine shrugged. “Once before. I was denning with two dependant children, he was going somewhere else. He agreed to take a different route, and that was the end of it.”

Tucker popped the lid on the thermos.

“Cool,” Danny said. He looked over a Shrine. “Are you going to be okay?”

Shrine smiled. “It’s just hair. It will regenerate soon enough.”

“Good,” Danny stated. “Let’s go home.”

“But you didn’t get _anything_ you could use for your report,” Sam pointed out. “You’re still gonna get a D.”

“Aw, that’s okay,” Danny said cheerfully. “The bad guy was stopped, the gorilla is safe, if that’s all we got done then that’s allLLL – OH MY GOSH!”

It took them several tries to explain to Shrine why this discovery was so important.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I feel a little bad for Shrine. In only two days, his ~~child~~ student went from 'reasonably safe' to 'attacked in his own home', _and where were his ~~other~~ parents during all this?_
> 
> And as we all know, Danny's life doesn't get any easier.


End file.
